Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Right.

Mrs. BOXER. I know the Senator is with us on that. I want to make the point, though, as you name the names of folks who are good folks and good business-people--some better business-people than others--they have not embraced a lot of things that you and I embrace. In this case you agree with them, But they are not in the planes. They fly around in their own corporate jets. I say to my friend, it is the flight attendants, the pilots, and the passengers in the planes. I honestly think if you want to look to who the leaders are on safety, I would rather look to the pilots and the flight attendants. But I know my friend feels very strongly about the cockpit doors, and I so agree with him. I just want to pose this question to him. He will have the floor as long as he wants, although I hope we can reach some agreement on the doors so we can end this lengthy debate. The Kevlar doors, which have been put into some of the JetBlue planes, to me, are a tremendous answer because you cannot penetrate that Kevlar door if it is kept shut. So I want to know if my friend had seen a demonstration of that Kevlar. And as we work together on the committee, I want to work with you on those doors. But I hope we can accommodate you in this bill and that we can bring this to a vote.

Mrs. BOXER. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mrs. BOXER. Senator Smith has been eloquent and his leadership has been stalwart. I very much worry that some kind of test program is going to be put forward by the administration, as opposed to what we are doing. I ask my friend if he does not agree. We already know there are huge failure rates at the screening points. TSA said in some airports it was 40 percent; in some it was 30 percent; and in some it was 20 percent. That means when the New York Daily News sent out reporters, and they came back after Labor Day and said they snuck on box cutters, pepper spray, knives, razor blades, all without detection, we already know, God forbid, we could theoretically and practically have another incident. Since we already know about that failure rate, and since we already know the military will shoot down commercial aircraft they decide is under control of hijackers, and since we know that the doors are not yet secure, and that in many cases they are open and the pilots come out or the flight attendants go in and they are guarded by a cart, don't we have enough information to move forward with this bill right now with this amendment?

Mrs. BOXER. Will the Senator yield?

Mrs. BOXER. While we are awaiting the arrival of Senator Smith, I thought I would give some more details about the bill. I see Senator Smith is in the Chamber, so at this point I am very happy he has come back. I know he had to attend a quick meeting. I say to Senator Smith, if we can get a vote this afternoon, it will be good for us. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I think this letter from the pilots comes from the heart. When we think back to that terrible day, we know exactly what happened. The flight attendants were trained never to interfere if someone wanted to hijack a plane. The pilots were trained to go along. Do you know, according to the flight attendants that Senator Smith and Senator Burns and I met with today, they haven't had one bit of new training since 9/11, almost a year ago? They are desperate for this legislation, which includes very important training for the flight attendants, to be repeated every 6 months at no new costs. As one flight attendant said, ``I don't need more training in how to make a napkin look better on a tray; I want to know how to defend myself in the cabin.'' In this bill, no one is authorized to carry a gun. It doesn't do that. All it says is that if a pilot feels that he or she wants to get this very extensive training--and we have strengthened it with the Feinstein language--and be qualified to defend the plane, as a last resort, if someone does break through the doors, under this amendment, they will have video cameras in the cockpit, which is what I wanted so much. That is kind of a rear-view mirror. And Senator Smith put in wireless communication so that the flight attendants can talk to the pilots in an unobtrusive fashion. This is a package that will make our skies safer. I am not going to talk long because I know Senator Smith, who started the ball rolling on this, is anxious to speak, Senator Hollings has some remarks, and people want to vote. So in the next 4, 5 minutes, I will lay out the rest of my argument. Why do we need this bill, which will have this voluntary program of arming pilots who would have to go through a rigorous course and get qualified repeatedly and have the psychological profiles and everything else that we would expect to have happen? Why do we need that? Why do we need to have the flight attendants' training? Mr. President, if I could stand before you and assure you that I believe the skies are safe, I would not be here supporting this bill, but I cannot tell you that, sadly. I join with my chairman. He has been a leader in safety, and we well know what has happened. Just yesterday we learned that reporters from a New York newspaper went through screening processes in 11 airports with box cutters, razor blades, knives, and pepper spray. What happened? Each and every one got past security at those 11 airports, even airports from which planes involved in the disaster of 9/11 originated. On July 1, we found out that the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, itself conducted a random test, and they found that in many airports there was a 40-percent failure rate of finding the contraband, finding the weapons. Sadly for me, two of those airports that did the worst were in my State, Sacramento and Los Angeles. Add to this we do not have enough air marshals. I cannot say how many we have. That is a classified item. But the American people need to know that we wrote the bill, and with the help of my chairman and his ranking member, we wrote the part of the bill that deals with putting air marshals on all the high-risk flights, the long-haul flights. I am here to say today unequivocally that we are way behind. On some of the airlines--very few--they have not strengthened the doors. Guess what, Mr. President. As my chairman has repeatedly said, they are open during the flight. I am on flights constantly, all across the country and in between, and I see the pilot come out of that door. Guess what they do. Sometimes they have a cart in front of the door to protect against the cockpit being taken over--a cart as a defense. Sometimes they will just have one or two flight attendants. Sometimes they will not even do anything; they just ask the passengers to stay away from the door. To sum up, failure is what happens at those screening points. The same weapons that caused the tragedy of 9/11 are getting through. We do not have enough air marshals. The flight attendants have not had one bit of new training on what to do. The pilots want to have something at their disposal to save the aircraft. And on top of that, the U.S. military has issued orders to shoot down a commercial aircraft that is under the control of hijackers. Imagine that. Imagine if that happened and we knew we had not taken action at least to give our pilots a chance. When I cosponsored this bill, people were really surprised because they said: Barbara Boxer is a leading advocate of gun control laws and making sure guns stay out of the hands of criminals; she is strong; she is on the floor. This is not about guns in the hands of criminals. This is about a trained pilot who volunteers, most of whom have training in the military, and they will have rigorous training under this bill. I do not know how we can, in the name of the victims of 9/11, not pass this bill today. I trust that we will do it. Today, one of the flight attendants I met is the mother of Mark Bingham, who was one of the passengers on flight 93 who fought so hard against the hijackers. God knows what they saw before they went into that cockpit. God knows what was done to the flight attendants who were told in their training to do nothing. God knows what they did to the pilots. God knows. Believe me, this wonderful woman talked today, and she could only speculate what it was like for her son and the others. When the son called, he would not go into any detail because, she said, he wanted to spare her that. Today we have a chance. This is the homeland security bill. What better way than to make a statement today that we are going to do everything in our power to ensure that at least the flight attendants are trained in self-defense, that the pilots have the tools they need, including a video camera, the training they need, wireless communications with the aircraft. If we do this, we will be doing a very good thing for the people of this country, for the traveling public of this country. I would like, at this time, to give an opportunity to Senator Smith to speak. I see he is away from the floor. I am going to yield the floor and say about Senator Smith's effort that he has really been the hero of this bill. He has worked hard with me to modify it in such a way so that I am proud to be on it. He has kept the coalition together. He has worked across the aisle and within his own party, and I think he and I are going to have a victory today. I certainly hope we will. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I send a modified amendment to the desk, which has been cleared by Senator Smith and myself, regarding training for pilots and flight attendants.

Mrs. BOXER. I want to make the point that Senator Smith and I are anxious to move forward on our amendment. We are working with Senator Feinstein on an amendment that she would like to offer by UC which, if it is in the spirit of what we discussed, would be fine with us. We do hope we can move forward. Talk about homeland security, 9/11, planes being hijacked and pilots and flight attendants being essentially helpless--we want to change that. We are going to stay here and push hard to try to get a vote on that before the end of the day.

Mrs. BOXER. Reserving the right to object one more second.

Mrs. BOXER. May I ask, where are we in terms of time?

Mrs. BOXER. On which amendment?

Mrs. BOXER. Reserving the right to object, I apologize. I was called to the Cloakroom. It was my understanding that after Senator Gramm speaks in morning business that we were going to go to the Smith-Boxer amendment.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, for the benefit of Members, I know Senator Reid has been working hard to move things along. We have reached agreement on modifying our amendment, making sure that the pilot training is strengthened. I think we have done that with the help of Senator Feinstein. I am very pleased that she was over here earlier to assist us with this amendment. I think she would be pleased with what we have done. Basically, it is the amendment that Senator Smith wrote in the form of a bill, and I was very glad to come on board after we wrote a few more bits and pieces about putting video cameras in the cockpits, and some other small items. I thank my colleague from New Hampshire for his vision and tenacity in making sure that what happened on September 11 will not happen again. Now we say, is there any one thing we can do can to ensure this will never happen? Of course not. Life is too complicated for that. As someone who has been a leader in the effort for sensible gun control laws, what we are doing in this amendment is very carefully thought out. It is backed by the Air Line Pilots Association International, and it is backed by the flight attendants. I ask unanimous consent that a letter I just received from the Air Line Pilots Association be printed in the Record.

Mrs. BOXER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 4491, As Amended

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I say to the flight attendants and the pilots who worked so hard to help us get this to a vote today: Your work will be rewarded. You are, in many cases, the last line of defense with the fact that our security checkpoints are failing, unfortunately. They are doing better, but they are not where they should be, and contraband is getting on to the planes, coupled with the fact that our military has orders to shoot down a plane that has been taken over by hijackers. Let's give this program a chance. Let's give people a chance to save their lives and the lives of the crew, the passengers and, frankly, the people on the ground. This is important for homeland security, to make sure we are doing everything to avoid another 9/11. I ask for an aye vote. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, in closing this debate, I thank everyone, particularly Senator Smith for his amazing work. I ask unanimous consent that Senator Baucus be added as a cosponsor.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, we are about to vote in 2 minutes. I am going to wrap up in 2 minutes. I send a modification of my amendment to the desk. I want to explain to my colleagues that this is a modification that has been written by Senator Hollings. It will result in the cockpit door remaining closed during the flight except for mechanical emergencies or physiological emergencies. This is an issue on which Senator Hollings has been a very strong and sometimes lone voice. We are very proud to accommodate him, and we hope, therefore, he will be with us on this vote.

Mrs. BOXER. If I might just answer the question this way: I would say, in all honesty, the ball is in the court of my chairman, Chairman Hollings. We have a couple of people who want to talk, but they are not asking for a lot of time. They have brief comments. But as soon as the Senator from South Carolina believes he is ready, we are ready. We do not have anything else we have to add. So we are working with him. We are trying to work with him on the issue of cockpit doors. We are hoping that it will occur to him to perhaps support us or at least allow us to have a vote. We just have to wait and see.

Mrs. BOXER. Right.

Mrs. BOXER. I thank the Senator. The Senator always makes a great argument for his position, but I have to say, these are the very same airlines who have not given the flight attendants one new bit of training.

Mrs. BOXER. Good.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I rise to recognize the achievements of the Marin Conservation Corps, MCC, the oldest local, private, non-profit conservation corps in the United States. Twenty years ago the winter of 1982 brought severe flooding to much of Marin County. Concerned citizens led by Richard Hammond took action by going out and battling the winter storms and working to protect the neighborhoods and natural habitats that were at risk. Since I was a member of the Marin Board of Supervisors at that time, I well remember them. From this community effort the Marin Conservation Corps was born. It identified its mission as developing the youth of Marin County by providing meaningful employment, education and training opportunities through projects that conserve natural resources, deliver human services and respond to public emergencies. In the 20 years since its founding, more than 3,000 corps members have participated in environmental service and educational programs. Youth and young adults between the ages of 11 and 30 receive service and educational opportunities. Participants in MCC may earn their high school diplomas through the MCC charter school, enroll in AmeriCorps programs or pursue lifelong learning programs, gaining valuable education and job training while learning the importance of community service. Community service projects have included building and maintaining Marin County's hiking trails, clearing and disposing of highly flammable brush throughout Marin to prevent fire hazards, teaching environmental education classes to thousands of students in the Marin County public schools, restoring and clearing creeks and waterways to prevent flooding, establishing recycling programs, and collecting over one million pounds of recyclables from approximately 250 bins that MCC members have built and placed throughout the county. In the year 2000 the California Charter Academy presented its ``Outstanding Program Award'' to the Marin Conservation Corps, recognizing MCC's exceptional education program. Programs such as the Marin Conservation Corps enrich our people and our communities and provide a model for similar efforts across our land.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I would like to take this opportunity to share with the Senate the memory of one of my constituents, Captain Charles F. Burlingame, III, who lost his life on September 11, 2001. Captain Burlingame was 51 years old when the flight he was piloting, American Airlines Flight 77, was overtaken and hijacked by terrorists. As we all know, that plane crashed into the Pentagon, killing everyone on board. Charles Burlingame was known as ``Chic'' his entire life by family and friends. He was born in St. Paul, MN, and grew up in Anaheim, CA. Chic was an Eagle Scout and played trumpet in his high school marching band. After graduating from Anaheim High School in 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He continued developing his musical talents and played bugle in the Naval Academy Drum and Bugle Corps. After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1971, he attended Naval air training at Pensacola, FL and then enrolled at the advanced tactical school at Meridian, MS, and Corpus Christi, TX. He flew F-4 Phantom jets as a carrier-based pilot aboard the U.S.S. Saratoga. In 1979 Captain Burlingame was honorably discharged from active duty and became a member of the Naval Reserves. During the Gulf War he served at the Pentagon under the Assistant Secretary of Defense and was awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal. Later, as a pilot for American Airlines he flew domestic and international flights. At his eulogy, Navy Vice-Admiral Timothy Keating described Captain Burlingame as ``a gifted aviator who could make jets talk.'' Senator George Allen of Virginia eulogized him as a man who ``gave his last breath in a struggle against terrorism. He was a true American patriot who paid the ultimate sacrifice as one of our Nation's first warriors to perish in the war on terrorism.'' Perhaps Chic Burlingame's attitude toward life is best summed up by a statement he wrote in a classmate's high school yearbook when Chic was about to graduate, ``Remember, desire and hard work equal victory!'' Chic believed that one person really can make a difference. Captain Burlingame is survived by his wife, Sheri G. Harris Burlingame, his daughter, Wendy D. Pattavina, his grandson, Jack Pattavina, step-sons John Harris and Chad Harris, brothers Mark M. Burlingame and Bradley M. Burlingame and sister Debra A. Burlingame. None of us is untouched by the terror of September 11th, and many Californians were part of each tragic moment of that tragic day. Some were trapped in the World Trade Center towers. Some were at work in the Pentagon. And the fates of some were sealed as they boarded planes bound for San Francisco or Los Angeles. I offer today this tribute to one of 51 Californians who perished on that awful morning. I want to assure the family of Charles Burlingame, and the families of all the victims, that their fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters will not be forgotten.